


Everything Was Changed

by bertholeandreindeer (lupdelup)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bisexual Armin Arlert, Car Accidents, Coma, F/M, Female Jean Kirstein, Genderbending, Major Character Injury, Marco Bott/Jean Kirstein-centric, Memory Loss, Minor Character Death, Parenthood, Unplanned Pregnancy, fem!Jean, unrequited Jearmin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 02:52:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15899430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lupdelup/pseuds/bertholeandreindeer
Summary: When Marco Bott is severely injured in a car accident, life changes dramatically for both himself and his wife, Jeanne. The two must learn how to adjust to the major changes that the accident and life brings to them.fem!Jean x Marco modern au. All other ships tagged are more minor characters.





	1. That Fateful Morning

_…I must have been unconscious for a while._

_I didn't realize that I nearly died –_

_[that I nearly died](https://youtu.be/LNcbX-U-p5I) _ _–_

_so I came to terms that everything was changed…_

 

**Chapter 1 - That Fateful Morning**

“Wake up,” he whispered softly in her ear, tickling her with his warm breath.

Jeanne groaned and rolled over, away from him. “Fuck off,” she grumbled into her pillow.

Marco only laughed. “You never have been much of a morning person, have you?”

She grunted at him. “And you continue to be the most obnoxious morning person on the entire planet,” she complained, putting the pillow over her head.

She could practically hear the goofy smile on his face as he replied to her. “Jeanne, it’s time to get up. You’ve got work.”

“I’ve got a good fifteen minutes before I need to wake up,” she retorted, muffled underneath the memory foam pillow.

Marco clicked his tongue at her. “Fine. I’m going to shower, unless you’d rather have some fun first…?”

That got her attention. She removed the pillow from her head and glanced at him, still lying beside her. “What did you have in mind?” she grinned at him. “Maybe that thing where we- wait, are you going to ask me again?” her grin immediately dissolved.

Marco’s face fell, and he blushed, looking away. Yep, he was definitely going to ask her about the ultimate elephant in the room.

“You were, weren’t you?”

“I don’t know why you’re so opposed… Connie and Sasha seem really happy, you know? And Asher is really cute, he’s such a good baby. I know ours would be good too.”

“You can’t possibly know that, and besides, it’s not a good time right now.”

He paused, and she knew what he was thinking before he even said it. “There’s never going to be a perfect time, Jeanne. What if we wait too long?”

This had been a conversation they’d had many times before. Ever since Sasha had gotten pregnant, Marco had had babies on his mind. On the one hand, Jeanne knew he would be an excellent father, and wanted him to have that experience. On the other hand… she knew how absolutely incapable she was with children, and that was enough of a deterrent.

Jeanne rolled over, turning away from him. “I’m not ready!” she snapped.

She heard Marco sigh behind her, but he still reached out and touched her arm tenderly. “Okay,” he said softly.

“Will you leave it alone, now?” she said, hoping that her irritation was obvious.

“I will.” She could practically see the expression he was making from his tone of voice, probably something akin to a kicked puppy. It wasn’t enough to make her turn to face him.

She felt him kiss the back of her head. “I’m going to shower,” he said quietly, and she felt him get up. He shuffled around the room for a few minutes, getting his stuff together, and then Jeanne heard the bathroom door shut gently behind him.

Jeanne rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling. She was wide awake, now.

A baby. Marco desperately wanted to have a baby, and Jeanne wasn’t budging. Did that make her an awful person? She had wondered, more than once.

Before they’d gotten married – soon after they’d started dating, in fact - Marco had told Jeanne that he had always wanted to be a parent. She hadn’t thought much of it, just assuming that she’d be ready eventually. But now, at 26, she still didn’t feel ready. And Marco had been okay with that… until the past year, anyway.

Sasha and Connie had found out that they were expecting at the end of January, and since then, it was like Marco had an itch he just couldn’t scratch; an itch that seemed only resolvable by getting Jeanne pregnant. Every time they saw a baby out in public, went to visit his extended family, or heard about some celebrity adopting a child, Marco’s attention was solely on that. He would talk for upwards of an hour at a time about how great it would be to start a family, and about how awesome a mother Jeanne would be.

The thing was, though, there’s no way Marco could know what kind of a mother Jeanne would be. And the thought of being a mother was so terrifying to her besides… well, it just wasn’t something that she was going to think about.

So it was always an instant shut down when Marco would bring it up. Jeanne wasn’t ready to think about it, let alone consider actually allowing it to happen.

Jeanne sighed, and shook her head. That was enough thinking about it for one day, she determined, pushing the thoughts from her mind.

She eased herself out of bed, stretching while trying to ignore the sounds of her body cracking and popping. She wasn’t that old yet, surely, but damn, she felt like it sometimes. Trying to ignore that thought as well, she padded across the room, bare feet cold against the hardwood floor of their small apartment. There, another great reason not to have a baby – their home was just too damn small for that. She’d use that excuse later, when Marco inevitably brought the subject up again.

Jeanne headed towards the bathroom, where she could hear the shower running. When she opened the door, the humidity greeted her like an old friend, and she hummed happily, stepping inside and shutting the door back behind her before the pleasant warmth could escape.

“Jeanne? Are you coming in?” Marco asked. She realized he must have heard the noise she’d made.

“I am. Is that cool?”

“Of course.”

She stripped down, out of his boxers and t shirt, then slipped off her panties, flinging her clothes to the side. Her bra was the last to go, and it was thrown unceremoniously behind the pedestal sink. She made a mental note to retrieve it later, before pulling the curtain slightly and joining her husband in the shower.

The water droplets from the showerhead glistened on his freckled skin as he rinsed the shampoo from his hair. Jeanne looked at him with approval as the water began to rinse clear, and he opened his eyes to look at her. “Are you just going to watch me?” he asked, giving her a lopsided grin.

She hummed thoughtfully. “I like the view,” she murmured, reaching out to touch his chest.

Marco shivered under her touch. “Yeah, my view is pretty great right now too,” he said softly. There was a hunger to his voice that made her feel warm.

Jeanne pressed herself against him, feeling him growing hard against her. Marco groaned. “I don’t think we have time,” he said, grimacing.

“You’d rather me stop?” she purred.

“I didn’t say _that._ ” He looked at her desperately.

“Don’t worry, we’ll make it quick.”

It was a little difficult in the shower, but the two managed, and they still had enough time to clean themselves, surprisingly. Marco got out of the shower first while Jeanne finished up. He was still grinning like an idiot as he toweled off.

“That was great Jeanne. We need to do that more often.”

“We can’t sleep in as late if we make that into a habit.”

“I’d be willing to get up a little earlier.”

“I wouldn’t.”

Marco laughed, and she heard the door open, then shut behind him. A blast of cold air assaulted her as she pulled back the shower curtain, residual from when he’d exited the room.

Jeanne dried herself off, then wrapped her towel around herself, heading back into her room to get dressed. She grabbed an apple from the bowl on their small kitchen counter for her breakfast, her lunch from the fridge, and then left to go about her normal workday at the hospital.

She didn’t realize that fateful day would be anything but normal.

* * *

Armin was already waiting on her, parked near her building. He smiled at her warmly as she got into the passenger side of the car. “Good morning.”

“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”

“Not at all.” Armin waved to Marco, who had just come down and gotten into Jeanne’s rusty old sedan. Marco waved back, and blew Jeanne a kiss. She snorted and felt herself blushing, even though Armin had almost certainly been witness to more embarrassing acts than that.

With Marco’s car in the shop waiting on a transmission replacement, the couple was down to one vehicle to be shared between the two of them. Carpooling together would have been ideal; however, they worked in entirely opposite directions, with Jeanne heading to downtown Trost for the hospital and Marco heading to the suburbs to the high school where he taught. Armin had been gracious enough to offer transportation to Jeanne, since they were working on the same campus… though there was a big difference between her management job and Armin’s position as an ER doctor.

It was interesting to Jeanne, that they remained friends. Even though Armin was busy nowadays, he still made time for their high school friend group, which Jeanne appreciated. Even if it was simply an act like offering to pick her up for work, Jeanne respected the fact that the people in Armin’s life mattered enough to him that he made an effort to maintain relationships. With the amount of money Armin was surely making, he could have replaced them for a more affluent friend group. But Armin remained as humble as ever, and it meant a lot to Jeanne.

“So, any news on the transmission?” Armin asked as he pulled out of the apartment complex’s parking lot. It was still early in the morning, but traffic was already picking up. Armin was driving carefully, as always.

“They’re waiting for some parts to come in, I think. Marco’s been the one talking to them, he says it’ll be a few more days.”

“That’s unfortunate. But I don’t mind bringing you to work until then.”

“It’s nice of you. I should thank you more often.” Jeanne snorted softly.

Armin shrugged, and offered her a shy smile. “It isn’t a big deal, Jeanne.”

Sometimes, when he looked at her like that, Jeanne wondered if Armin did consider her just a friend. She’d honestly been wondering since high school, but… Oh, that was right, he’d been going out with a new guy, recently. She could bring that up. “How are things with that guy you were going out with, by the way?”

Armin blushed, and looked away. “Ah, it didn’t work out. He wasn’t interested in a committed relationship.”

She nodded, frowning. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“It’s okay. You didn’t know.” The car grew quiet, and Jeanne was left to her own thoughts.

Thinking once more to their friend group, it was honestly amazing to Jeanne how they had managed to stay together. Most of them still even lived in the same city. Trost was like that – once somebody got there, they never seemed to leave. To her, it seemed a curse and a blessing at the same time. Jeanne was comfortable there, but… she’d always wondered what it would be like in another place. A place where she hadn’t grown up, where she still ran into people she despised.

What it came down to was that Trost was just too damn small.

Eren Jaeger, the bastard, had managed to escape. Mikasa, too. They had moved back to Shiganshina, shithole that it was (in Jeanne’s opinion). Eren had gone first, naturally, with Mikasa following as she always seemed to. Armin, the third member of that trio, had stayed, rather than trying to fiddle with the different medical licensing procedures there.

And for the most part, everyone else had stayed, too. Sasha and Connie were still in Trost, and likely weren’t going anywhere, now that they had a family. Ymir and Historia were traveling, doing some volunteering abroad (well, Historia was. Ymir was just following Historia and making sure nobody messed with her small wife), but their home base was still Trost. Reiner and Bertholdt had opened a restaurant locally, so they were pretty much stuck. Annie was even around still, doing… something. Jeanne wasn’t sure what it was she was doing, but whenever there was some kind of special occasion around the holidays, the small blonde would attend, as quiet and terrifying as ever. The gang was, for the most part, all there in Trost.

Marco had talked about moving to Jinae before, but Jinae was a small town. If Trost, a city, was too small for Jeanne, the small farming community of Jinae would drive her crazy. She’d resisted him, but she’d started to wonder recently if she was being too stubborn. Still… Trost was her home, and had been since she was born. It wasn’t an easy thing to leave behind.

“You’re very quiet today. Is everything alright?” Armin asked, jarring her out of her thoughts.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” she answered quickly. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”

“I understand. Working under the pressures we do… it can be a lot.”

Jeanne snorted loudly at that. “You more so than me, but yeah… it’s not an easy place to work.” Her position as an office supervisor was more exciting than she had originally expected. Jeanne really had just wanted something to pay the bills, so she could work on her art in the meantime. What she’d ended up with was a position where a lot was demanded of her, for not much pay.

“Are you still thinking about leaving?” he asked her gently, referring to a conversation they’d had a few months back.

“It depends. Marco’s wanting to get his Masters, maybe, so it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to be jobless while he’s doing that.”

“Understandable. Still… you shouldn’t make yourself miserable.”

“Sometimes life just works out that way, you know?”

“… I guess so.”

They pulled into the parking garage of the hospital, and Jeanne bade Armin farewell as they headed off towards two separate buildings. It wasn’t long before she was at her desk in a small building on the Trost Memorial Hospital’s campus, and starting the day’s duties.

She glanced at the clock on the wall opposite her desk. 8:04 am.

Just 8 more hours to go.

* * *

 

She felt like she’d spent the day looking at the clock, but finally, she glanced at the clock and it gave her some good news. 12:02 pm – time for her lunch break.

She pulled out her leftovers from last night, the lasagna that Marco had artfully prepared, and stuck it in the microwave before sitting back down at her desk. She was just about to pull out her phone to fiddle around on Facebook when the door to her office was thrown open, causing her to jump.

“What the fuck- Armin? Why are you – oh, oh God. What’s wrong?” she asked, seeing the look on his face. She’d never seen Armin look so pale… he was nearly shaking. What Jeanne had originally mistook for sweat on his face, she now understood to be tears. That did nothing to ease her worries.

“Armin! What the hell is going on, tell me!” Jeanne demanded, standing up and moving towards him. She wanted to grab him when he didn’t immediately answer.

Armin took a shaky breath, before finally speaking. “I think… I think Marco may be dead,” he said, the tears falling freely from his eyes.

Her world felt like it ended.

 


	2. Cry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It felt like it took forever for her to speak, and when the words finally came out, they were choked. “What are you talking about?! Tell me!”
> 
> Armin trembled slightly. “There was a car accident… they told me names. And… the nurse said he didn’t make it here, Jeanne.”
> 
> Jeanne shook her head. “I won’t believe it until I see it!” She felt angry at him, for telling her this lie. It had to be a lie. “Take me to him, Armin!”

_Love is watching someone[die](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNm2_Wth1sE)…_

 

**Chapter 2 - Cry**

It felt like it took forever for her to speak, and when the words finally came out, they were choked. “What are you talking about?! Tell me!”

Armin trembled slightly. “There was a car accident… they told me names. And… the nurse said he didn’t make it here, Jeanne.”

Jeanne shook her head. “I won’t believe it until I see it!” She felt angry at him, for telling her this lie. It had to be a lie. “Take me to him, Armin!”

“Jeanne, it was a really bad accident… I don’t know if you’d want to see him, based on everything I heard-”

“Goddammit, Armin, that’s my husband! I need to see if he’s okay!”

Armin reached out and grabbed her arm firmly. There was pain in his bright blue eyes. “I don’t want you to have to see that,” he said gently.

She jerked away, frowning darkly. “It’s my choice!” She wasn’t crying, not yet, but she wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold out. If she didn’t cry, it wasn’t true, so she had to be strong. If she started to cry… it would mean she had accepted it.

Armin nodded sadly. “Please, just… check your phone. It’ll probably tell you more than I know.”

Jeanne pulled it out of her pocket, and hit the button to light up her home screen. As she did so, she caught a glimpse of a number of missed calls from the hospital before the screen changed, showing an incoming call from the same number. She picked up quickly. “Hello?”

“Is this the phone number for Mrs. Bott?” an unfamiliar woman’s voice was on the other end of the line.

“That’s my husband’s name, but my last name is Kirstein.” Jeanne wasn’t sure why she bothered to correct the woman. Maybe it was so she could keep pretending there was nothing wrong.

“Oh, I’m sorry Mrs. Kirstein. That was my mistake. I’m really sorry to call you under such circumstances.”

Jeanne felt ill. “What happened to my husband?! There’s someone here with me, saying he’s dead… please tell me that isn’t true!”

The woman hesitated before speaking. “He isn’t dead, but he has been seriously injured. Please come to the emergency room, and we can tell you everything. You’re on the campus already, correct?”

He wasn’t dead. Thank God, he wasn’t dead. Her grief disappeared, replaced by worry. “I am. I’m coming.” She hung up the phone and grabbed her bag.

Armin must have been able to hear the conversation for the most part, because he looked panicked. “I’m sorry Jeanne, they must have confused the names when they told me!”

“That is the least of my worries right now, Armin. I need to go and make sure he’s alright.” She began to head towards the door, then felt his hand on her arm once again. She turned and frowned darkly at him. “Let me go, now! I need to go to him!” she snapped.

Armin let go, uncertainly. “Jeanne…”

“What?!”

“His condition is critical. He might… he might not come back from this. You’ll… need to be prepared.”

“That’s not something I’m ever going to be prepared for, Armin,” Jeanne said firmly, before turning from him and running out the door.

The emergency room seemed like it was miles away, even though it really only took her a few minutes to get there. Jeanne sped through the automatic doors, barely giving them time to open, and ran up to the counter.

“I’m Jeanne Kirstein, my husband Marco Bott is here,” she said quickly.

She woman at the desk nodded, and typed in some information. “He’s still in emergency surgery right now, but I can point you in the right direction for the waiting room.”

Jeanne scowled. “You can’t give me any more information than that?”

“Ma’am, I don’t know any more information than that. You’ll have to wait on the doctors… I’ll let them know you’re here. That’s all I can do.”

Jeanne could tell she wouldn’t get any more information out of this woman, so she let the stranger lead her to the waiting room. Jeanne sat down briefly, but found more relief pacing around nervously. So that’s what she did.

The thing that eventually stopped her was Armin, who had apparently followed her at a distance. He came over and touched her arm, gently. “Do you… want me to check?”

Jeanne nodded quickly. “Yes!”

“Okay,” he said softly, and then, disappeared down the hall.

It was about twenty minutes before he returned, but for Jeanne, it felt like hours. Glancing out the window, she could swear that even the seasons were passing her by, the spring turning to summer turning to fall before her very eyes.

Finally, there were footsteps. She spun around to check, and, thank God, it was Armin. When she saw his face, though, she wished he hadn’t returned. The look of fear…

Jeanne met him halfway, unable to wait for him to come to her fully. “Armin… what’s going on?”

Armin took her hand and brought her back to the seats, having her sit down with him. “He’s badly injured, Jeanne. His right side… is really messed up. From what they told me, he was in the car as a passenger, with someone else, around 11:30 this morning. They were hit head on. The driver died… someone named Thomas. He didn’t have on his seat belt.”

Jeanne felt cold. Thomas Wagner was one of Marco’s work friends. They must have gone out to get lunch… “What about Marco?” She needed to know how he was, desperately.

Armin hesitated for a second, then spoke. “He’s got a head injury, and they don’t know what the effects will be. And his right arm was… severed. They don’t know if they can save it. Right now, they’re just trying to save his life. There’s a lot of bleeding in his brain.” He sighed shakily.

“I…  I would feel a lot more comfortable if you were in that operating room, Armin.” Jeanne wouldn’t have trusted anyone more.

“I know. I would too. But it’s a conflict of interest, they’d never let me.” He frowned “If you’d like, I’ll… I’ll tell them I’m staying with you today.”

Jeanne shook her head, not wanting the sympathy. “You should go back to work, if you can. I need to make some phone calls.” His parents needed to know so they could make the trip from Jinae… especially if there was a chance he wouldn’t be alright. She didn’t want to think about that, though.

Armin looked at her sadly. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’ll be okay.” She wasn’t sure she would be, but… she had to stay strong.

He nodded. “Alright, Jeanne. I’ll… I’ll be around. Let me know if you need anything.” He squeezed her hand, then got up. She hadn’t realized he’d still been holding it.

She watched Armin disappear down the hallway, and then, she pulled out her phone. His parents would want to know.

She looked in her contacts for Bianca Bott. The number looked foreign to her, complete with a different area code. She didn’t call his parents much. When she did talk with them, it was in person, or Marco had been the one to call. She wasn’t even sure what to say to them… she didn’t really know much herself.

Jeanne hit the green phone button, and held the device up to her ear. It rang once, twice, three times… and then, a familiar voice picked up.

“Oh, hello Jeanne! How are you?” Bianca’s cheery disposition shone through even the phone.

“Bianca, I…” her voice came out, choked. “You need to come.”

The line was quiet. “Jeanne, what’s happened?” Bianca finally said, now completely serious. Jeanne wished that she could tell her it was just a cruel joke.

“Marco was in a car accident. It’s very serious,” Jeanne said, her eyes welling up with tears. She didn’t want to cry, not here, but… now that she had a moment to herself, the severity of the situation was finally hitting her again.

“Oh God… Marco…” she could hear Bianca start to sob, and immediately felt guilty. “W-we’ll be there. Please, let me know if anything happens.”

“I will,” Jeanne said, voice thick as her throat threatened to close from the anxiety she felt.

“I’ll see you in a few hours,” Bianca said, then promptly hung up. Jeanne put her phone down, and held her head in her hands.

She wished she knew how to pray. Neither her nor Marco were religious, even though he’d grown up Catholic. Now, she was willing to pray to any deity that would listen, God or Buddha or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. But she didn’t know if even that would work. She decided pleading internally would be her best bet.

_Please… if there’s any goodness in this world, please save him._

Her tears fell freely now, onto her hands and lap. She was totally powerless, and she fucking knew it. She hated it – she always had, whenever she felt like something was out of her control.

But now, all she could do now was wait.

No news was good news. That’s what she kept telling herself. But as the hours continued to pass by, with no indicator of what was happening, Jeanne couldn’t help but worry. It didn’t help that time seemed to pass at a speed similar to that of sap oozing down a tree. The only thing that was close to being “good” was the fact that, for the most part, she was alone in the waiting room.

She hadn’t called her mother yet. She really didn’t want to deal with Maman’s overbearing presence, not right now. Jeanne preferred to deal with her emotions alone. It was something Marco had had to learn the hard way, and he still didn’t get it, not all of the time.

God, Marco. Every time she thought of him, her chest ached. She thought her heart might explode from worry.

It was four and a half hours after she’d arrived that Armin returned. She recognized his footsteps coming down the hall. There was something about his pace, and the jingle of his keys in his pocket… maybe it was because she’d known him for so many years. Regardless, she knew it was him before he was even in her line of sight, and she stood immediately, running to him.

He looked surprised, and reached out to touch her arm gently. “Are you alright?” he asked softly.

Jeanne shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Do you know anything?” she asked quickly.

Armin nodded. “I came to tell you. I talked with a nurse who was in the room.”

“And?”

“Things are going well. But… they couldn’t save his right arm.”

Jeanne, who had been holding her breath, let it out in a rush. “Christ.” Marco was right-handed. She… she wasn’t sure how he would cope, but… it was better news than losing him. She’d worry about how he would manage later. “What about his brain?”

“They’ve stopped the bleeding, and they’ve managed to relieve the pressure. They shouldn’t be much longer.”

Jeanne nodded weakly. “Do they… do they think there’s brain damage, Armin? Is he going to wake up?” she wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but… finding out later wouldn’t be any easier.

“They won’t know the extent of it until he wakes up, but… they do think he’ll wake up. It just might be a while. They said they want to keep him comatose, because of the swelling.”

Jeanne felt ill. She wasn’t sure how long she could wait to know just how damaged his brain was, but… she didn’t really have a choice, either. “…Thank you.”

Armin looked at her with concern. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you?”

Jeanne closed her eyes, and swallowed thickly. “It’ll just make me more upset. Besides, his parents are on their way… they’ll be here soon.”

Armin frowned, but she knew he wouldn’t push her. “Alright, Jeanne. Please, if you need anything…”

“Yeah. I know.”

He gave her one last sad look before leaving her alone once again.

Comatose. He’d be comatose for a while… Christ.

She sat back down, trying to reassure herself that this was good news she’d heard, that things were going well in the operation. But it was hard, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to see him immediately wake up. If he would be the same when he woke up, even.

She went back to waiting, watching the sun begin to set outside.

Another hour passed. She’d called Bianca soon after Armin had told her his update, and Bianca had been about 2 hours out. His father couldn’t come; Marco’s youngest two sisters still lived at home, and he needed to be there for them. Marco was closer to his mother, anyway… he would be glad to see her when he woke up, Jeanne was sure.

Jeanne heard unfamiliar footsteps heading in her direction, and, since she was alone in the waiting room once again, she was sure they were for her. Sure enough, a doctor came around the corner, and glanced around, spotting her. He headed her way. “Are you Mr. Bott’s wife?” he asked.

“Yes, I am,” Jeanne said, a feeling of dread overcoming her. She hoped she wasn’t noticeably shaking.

“Your husband is out of surgery. I think my colleague may have told you, but we had to remove his right arm almost entirely. There was also extensive damage to the right side of his face. We did manage to save his eye.”

Jeanne nodded, her full attention on the doctor’s words.

“He suffered a traumatic brain injury. We’ve managed to get him into a stable condition, but we want to keep him in a medically induced coma until the swelling starts to subside. We aren’t sure how long that will take, or the extent of the damage. He may have some memory problems… he may have a different temperament. I’ll provide you with some literature on traumatic brain injuries, so you can at least feel a little more prepared. However, there’s nothing that can really make you feel totally prepared for something like that.”

“Is he… he’ll wake up, right?”

“We feel fairly certain he will.”

Jeanne sighed in relief. “Thank you for letting me know. Can I see him?”

“We’re moving him into another room right now. Room 137. You can go ahead there, and they’ll have him there shortly.” He nodded at her, and took his leave.

Jeanne moved quickly and grabbed her things, heading in the direction immediately. She got to the room before anyone else had come, and stood there, waiting nervously. While she waited, she texted Bianca, giving her the room number.

It seemed like it took forever, but finally, she caught movement in the hallway, in the form of a bunch of nurses and several doctors pushing a bed and machinery. Jeanne caught a glimpse of black hair, and felt her heart leap in her chest. They hadn’t lied to her. He was still alright.

The staff bustled him into the room. Jeanne wanted to cry when she saw him. The right side of his body was covered in bandages from the damage, and he looked incredibly pale, lying there in the bed. She wanted to run to him, to hold his hand, but knew that the staff needed to get everything situated.

Finally, after they got everything taken care of, one of the doctors headed over to her. They gave her the general rundown that the other physician had, and told her what to watch out for, reassuring her that he was on an alarm system in addition and would be well taken care of. And then, after a few more moments of checking different parameters on the machines, Jeanne was left alone with Marco.

She pulled a chair over to his bedside, and sat down gently, tearing up. He looked so vulnerable like this, and she hoped that he wasn’t in any pain. She took his left hand in hers, squeezing gently. “I love you,” she said quietly. “I love you so much.”

And for the first time that day, she let herself cry freely.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to give a big thank you to my partner for being my beta reader. She is amazing and I don't know what I would do without her constantly helping me out with my creative pursuits. Thank you!
> 
> This is a story that has been in my head for a long time, back when the fandom was much more active. I was afraid to post it until now, but if I don't write it, nobody else will. It just felt like it was time.


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